Wat Chaiwatthanaram, A famous ancient temple in Ayutthaya

[Bruce Mangosteen]

Last week I spent a few days in Ayutthaya.  On the first day of that trip Lady M. and I visited Wat Chaiwatthanaram.  It's a beautiful temple ruin on the bank of the Chao Phaya River.  We got there at about 5:00PM and took pictures until night fell.





















































The preceding pictures were taken by yours truly using a Canon A1100IS compact point-and-shoot camera.  The first and last pictures are actually composites, each made by joining three individual photos.

The following pictures were taken by a Thai friend of ours using his Nikon D70s DSLR.















Note that the right side of the "landscape" oriented photos seems to be clipped off by the board software.  If you right-click and view the image separately your browser should show the whole picture.

[Admin]

As always, your photos are amizingly vivid, clear and so alive, makes me wonder, do you really post the photos as they are or do retouch with some software?  really nice.

PS: you told me you have Canon camera but do you use the "Manual" or "Automatic" mode of the camera?

[Bruce Mangosteen]

As always, your photos are amizingly vivid, clear and so alive, makes me wonder, do you really post the photos as they are or do retouch with some software?  really nice.

Thanks for the kind words.  I try to retouch my photos as little as possible.  Mostly I'll tweak the gamma and contrast on pics taken when it's cloudy or otherwise dark; rarely do I touch the color balance.  Also, when I resize the photos I have the software (Irfanview) set to do a "sharpen" on them as well.

PS: you told me you have Canon camera but do you use the "Manual" or "Automatic" mode of the camera?

I use the "program" mode.  It's semi-automatic, setting the aperture, shutter speed, focus and white balance but not the ISO.  In the program mode I still have some manual control of the exposure and white balance as well and do tweak those occasionally.

[Bruce Mangosteen]

[Admin]

as always, you photos bring new spirit to the forum. 
I started to use "Program" mode in my Canon as well, some pictures come good, but some require Auto/disable the flash, basically, I prefer on Auto and if some picture come not good, can always take another shot. that's what good in Digital cameras today.
the Program mode is more match to closeup photos and some Certain weather condition/light expossure levels.

 

[Bruce Mangosteen]

as always, you photos bring new spirit to the forum. 
I started to use "Program" mode in my Canon as well, some pictures come good, but some require Auto/disable the flash, basically, I prefer on Auto and if some picture come not good, can always take another shot. that's what good in Digital cameras today.
the Program mode is more match to closeup photos and some Certain weather condition/light expossure levels.

 

Thanks again for the kind words.  Actually, the quality of your results with the camera will largely depend on how easy its menu system is to use.  I find the menu system on the Canon to be a snap to use, whereas on my other camera, a Panasonic Lumix, the menu system is a nightmare.  A friendly menu system means you don't miss a shot because you're trying to remember which rabbit hole a setting is hiding in.

[Admin]

Thanks again for the kind words.  Actually, the quality of your results with the camera will largely depend on how easy its menu system is to use. I find the menu system on the Canon to be a snap to use, whereas on my other camera, a Panasonic Lumix, the menu system is a nightmare.  A friendly menu system means you don't miss a shot because you're trying to remember which rabbit hole a setting is hiding in.

You are so right, read this thread( http://www.buriramexpats.com/forum/index.php/topic,2765.0.html ), I recommended on a Panasonic Lumix camera, after 1 day only I went back to upgrade for "Canon", the price of the Panasonic was so tempting but the ease and intuitive menu of the Canon is worth the extra money (2000 Baht extra) and the flash of the Canon is nothing to compare with the Panasonic one.. I don't know how, but many people saying Panasonic is so good, I have only bad experience with the Panasonic and will go for Canon anytime.
Sony are OK, but I don't like their cameras for some reason.
Of course, we are talking about mini digital cameras on the range of 200-500$.. yeah?

[Fun Smile]

Wow! this is really great pictures ...I enjoy it so much...  thank you for sharing Bruce

[TBWG]

Hi

Yes great pics ~~ I have been there but unfortunately on the day I went the place was swarming with school kids, they were everywhere, like lots of ants!


TBWG

[Bruce Mangosteen]

Hey, thanks folks! 

Yes, I agree that these places can get crowded, but I love to watch the kids as they are exposed to the beauty and mystery of their cultural background.  The future of the world is the children; it's lovely to see them learning that understanding the past is necessary to understand the present.  And the future.

[Admin]

Hey, thanks folks! 

Yes, I agree that these places can get crowded, but I love to watch the kids as they are exposed to the beauty and mystery of their cultural background.  The future of the world is the children; it's lovely to see them learning that understanding the past is necessary to understand the present.  And the future.

That's a very meaningful sentence.
True and I do agree with you. 

[Bruce Mangosteen]

Thanks again for the kind words.  Actually, the quality of your results with the camera will largely depend on how easy its menu system is to use. I find the menu system on the Canon to be a snap to use, whereas on my other camera, a Panasonic Lumix, the menu system is a nightmare.  A friendly menu system means you don't miss a shot because you're trying to remember which rabbit hole a setting is hiding in.

You are so right, read this thread( http://www.buriramexpats.com/forum/index.php/topic,2765.0.html ), I recommended on a Panasonic Lumix camera, after 1 day only I went back to upgrade for "Canon", the price of the Panasonic was so tempting but the ease and intuitive menu of the Canon is worth the extra money (2000 Baht extra) and the flash of the Canon is nothing to compare with the Panasonic one.. I don't know how, but many people saying Panasonic is so good, I have only bad experience with the Panasonic and will go for Canon anytime.
Sony are OK, but I don't like their cameras for some reason.
Of course, we are talking about mini digital cameras on the range of 200-500$.. yeah?

Sorry, just saw this post.  Actually, the A1100IS cost me about $130 in the US if I remember correctly.  An absolute steal as it turns out.

I agree that the Panasonic has a much better flash.  However, I also agree that the better flash doesn't translate into a better camera.  The Panasonic could have a flash on it the size of a Cadillac's headlight and I'd still go for the Canon.  Auxiliary/slave flash units aren't expensive.

That being said, I like the 10x optical zoom on the Lumix.  That is ALMOST worth going through the trouble of learning the clunky menu system IMO.  Note that the Panasonic I have (TZ3) is 7mpx, whereas the Canon is 12mpx, meaning that I can make up a lot of the difference in zoom power by cropping and resizing, or by using the "digital zoom" (which I have resisted using thus far).

[Admin]

I don't know how you understand I said the Panasonic have good flash.
The opposite, In my opinion the Canon is superior at almost any aspect over the Panasonic, Apart maybe the digital zoom you are talking about, but that's depend on the model types, both have many.
I think its not worth for anyone to go through the frustrating menu the Panasonic have put into their cameras.
Too many clicks before getting to the simplest option needed, (flash/no flash/daytime/nighttime, etc..).
Too bad as I don't think its a hardware downside the Panasonic have but a programing problem. 

[Bruce Mangosteen]

I don't know how you understand I said the Panasonic have good flash...etc.

It was this remark:  "...the flash of the Canon is nothing to compare with the Panasonic one."  However, generally I agree that the Canon is the preferable camera. 

I have gotten some nice results with the Lumix though.













...and from Sony cameras too.